Picky Daughter

How old is she?
Food fights that last until midnight is very much a waste of time.
I think you might be putting too much importance on it for now.
Let her have her milk and the other things she does like.
Making her sit at the table until midnight has a great possibility of resulting in an eating disorder down the line.

Cut back on the milk, give her pick from two healthy choices of something to eat and maybe she will be more likely to eat it. If say she doesn't want to eat her dinner, tell her it's okay and it will be there when she gets hungry don't make her sit there crying, when she gets hungry give her back the meal, do not give her snacks or milk first. Be consistent and she might come around.

Keeping her at the table until midnight or threatening punishment if she doesn't eat will only fuel her resistance to eating, give her 30 minutes. Don't make it a big deal, eat your dinner, if she doesn't eat wrap it up and tell her she can have it when she's hungry, and offer no milk, just water. Give her milk after she has eaten her meal, water with it, so she has an incentive to eat. Cut down on the amount of milk you serve her so she doesn't fill up on it, offer a third of it 3 times a day (morning, before her nap and evening) and talk to her ped to find out 1) how much milk she should be drinking daily and 2) for ideas on how to get her to eat.

I'm thinking if she is held to a necessary amount of milk daily, offered something she likes and something you want her to eat at mealtimes she may begin to slowly come around. Make sure you have her on a good multi-vitamin (gummies are usually a hit with kids) to offset the nutrients she isn't getting, over a year old milk can only offer so much nutrient-wise.

Let it go. Offer healthy foods. If she eats it great. If not, she'll eat when she's hungry. Do not battle over food. It will only lead to eating problems throughout her life.

What's wrong with milk? My kids love it, but they still eat. Some of the healthiest adults I know drink milk at every meal. Don't take away her milk.

Offer her healthy food at each meal and snack. If she doesn't want it, let her go. If she's hungry she will eat it. Don't make her sit at a table and try to force her to eat. She will win the battle every time.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You can place food in front of a child, but you can't make her eat.

I was forced to eat as a child as I didn't like very many foods, only a few. It sure did not help me. I was punished most of the time and many nights sat there until I was either hit or ate. Caused damage, please do not do this to her. Not that you would but I don't know what you mean by punish.

Sounds like you don't actually punish her or she'd eat. Don't give her the milk. I know that's hard because she'd cry and carry on, but don't give the milk and eventually she'll get hungry enough to eat. I know this sounds mean but if it's this bad sometimes it's your only recourse. Tell her she gets milk after she eats her food. Start with just a small amount and gradually give her more every couple days and she only gets milk after eating. Also, she just needs plain simple foods as she's a child and sounds like she doesn't like complicated foods anyway. Stick to simple things but nuturishing. It would be tough for a while but she has to eat. She can't live on milk.

How did she get this way? She was probably picky to begin with and then you gave into her which started the cycle. At this point it's the routine, the way life is as far as she's concerned, as this is what it's been. -- My youngest was picky but she'd eat and so for the things she didn't like which was mostly all veggies and some other foods, I would put a small bit on her plate. After a while when I saw she wasn't eating it, I'd make two piles of it, a small pile and big pile and tell her to choose which side she wanted. Of course she chose the small side. But she knew she had to eat it. She saw everyone else eating and she knew it was what was expected. Sometimes if it was food she really hated, I'd offer her catsup on it or something that sweeten it. I didn't like doing it but she'd eat it. Evenually she became a good eater and now as an adult she's actually a very health conscious person.

My grandson is the same way. He only wants bread and oatmeal. He always ate very little and was picky from the start. Then his mother always gives in to him. She started him on bread to start the meal and he'd fill up and wouldn't want anything else. Now he's six and doesnt want anything but bread. I get concerned. He's very small. I've told them to do the same thing and he will get hungry enough to eat what you give him, but they won't. They don't want to go through the head-ache of it all.

With my other grandson that stays with me -- well he can get picky too. But sometimes I let him get hungry, especially if we're having something I know he's not going to like. And then he will eat anything you put in front of him. Don't get me wrong, I'm not letting him get so hungry he's in any danger. He's just really hungry and has built up an appetite and after he eats it he'll say how good it was. But if he's not all that hungry cause he ate snacks he wouldn't eat it and say he doesn't like it even though it's the same food. He'd only eat if it's something he really, really likes.

Well, don't know if any of this helps but I hope so. Just keep trying. How old is she? (hope this makes sense - I'm tired and have to get off this dabnabit machine)

Please update this question and include how old your daughter is. The age matters in giving you answers that will help you, except for the following, which pertains no matter HOW old she is. I can't imagine that she is real little if you are actually keeping her up until midnight.

Why on earth would you do that? This borders on abusive.

If you REALLY want help with this, you won't get your back up when people tell you that making a child sit at the table until midnight with tears rolling down her cheeks is wrong, wrong, wrong. If you care that you might be causing your child a lifetime of eating disorders, you'll stop doing this and find out appropriate ways to help her.

If you don't believe us when we tell you this, then you need to go talk to your child's doctor.

Dawn

Toddler or teen or what age group?

Sensory processing disorder, or autism, or eating disorder, or recent trauna, or othe cognitive /emotional /neurological issues?

Ulcers, or severe gag reflex, or other medical issues?

New or long standing issue?

But, st the most basic, she needs a series of evals. Medical, then psych.
(Psych requires a medical eval to rule out physiological problems before heading to psychological or neurological).

Not enough information provided here.

Please read this article on food aversions in kids:
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/extremely-picky-eaters-st...

I was very picky when I was growing up, If I didn't eat my food then my mother and my father would take away all privileges, and eventually I came around, I started eating the food I had or else I couldn't do nothing but stand in the hallway until eventually I got hungry, I'm not saying do this to your daughter, but you could send her to her room, and eventually she would get hungry. Do you feed her any big or complicated meals?